November 9, 2010

DT Friday Freakout: Makeup Edition

Yeah yeah, whatever, our trip out of town this week means I've got a bagful of freakout with your name on it:

Now now, New York, don't even try to compare your piddly little elevated lead levels in drinking water to DC. Yours is related to whatever the indoor plumbing was like in your tiny random sample, and it dissipates if you run the water for 30 seconds. DC's was a full-blown, near-system-wide spike caused by clueless treatment changes. [nyc.gov]

But perhaps you can use the recent lead level thing as an excuse to get a do-over for your kid's E.R.B. so he can get into the right preschool. Because otherwise, you are probably not rich or well-connected enough to get it yourself. [nyt]

Have you ever heard of the Fultz Quads? The adorable black quadruplets born in 1946--who were named by the obstetrician after women in his family, and who were then basically taken away from their sharecropper parents and raised as formula spokesbabies to the African American community? Yeah, me either, but holy crap. [via dt reader mpt], updated/ alt link archive.is

Dolphin babies' survival is based on their mothers' network of friends. The equivalent for human babies is the number of their momblogger Twitter followers. No dads were harmed--or even involved--in the making of this important scientific discovery. [wired]

Eggs are totally bad for you now or something. Too long a read for a habit I know I'm not going to change anyway. [the awl]

If you're really going to have the kid circumcised, you should at least get a cut [heh] of the profits when the hospital sells his foreskin to the cosmetics company. [cafemom via like a million people]

When this Happy Meal Toy Ban vote came down in San Francisco, my immediate thought was to make a grid of all the Happy Meal combinations that could still generate a toy. Funny how a weekend of actual vacation just kind of chased that plan right out of my head. Basically, the city caved to the all-powerful Apple Dippers lobby. [sfweekly]

BPA? You're soaking in it. Pregnant women should now never touch thermal paper receipts. Or leave the house. Or bed. Just stay put, and don't touch anything. [nature]